Following the announcement of the Verizon-tied Lumia 928, Nokia just unveiled their upgraded Lumia 920 for the global market – the Lumia 925, known under the Catwalk codename. It is basically the 920 that got rid of the wireless charging weight and swapped polycarbonate frame for an aluminium one. However, there is more than meets the eye in details.

Lumia 925 variants

Mass of the device dropped down to 139 grams (from 185 grams), and the new frame managed to shave down a nice layer of thickness as well ? to 8.5 mm (from 10.7 mm). In fact, this flagship unit is now the thinnest Windows Phone device available. This overall slimming of the device led to the appearance of a minor camera ?hump? on the 925 that used to be contained in a much thicker case of the previous model. WOrth noting is that the wireless charging is still available via additional back covers.

Lens assembly reveals additional, 6th glass element

An 8.7 megapixel OIS camera is the same unit found in the previous model(s), but with an extra lens layer on top, possibly to protect it from scratching since the hump is extending from the body of the device. The Nokia folks did mention on stage it should provide crisper and better images than the previous model, though. Screen technology changed as well. While it is the same 4.5-inches in physical size, it is no longer an IPS LCD but an AMOLED of the same 768×1280 resolution (332ppi) as before, though it is unknown whether it is of PenTile arrangement or not. Battery remains the same with 2000mAh capacity, however, Nokia claims it has almost 3 hours more of 3G (talk time) usage than the Lumia 920, possibly due to software optimizations and the use of the different screen tech. 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 that powers the Lumia 920 is found in the Lumia 925 as well, leaving the platform completely devoid of the more current generation of Qualcomm SoCs.

Nokia focused a bit on the software side as well. The new Lumia comes with the Smart Camera mode that can be set as the default one whilst snapping photos, and it brings a few options such as Best Shot, Action Shot, and Motion Focus, fully employing the Scalado imaging software technologies. Additionally, they announced the Hipstamatic?s new application, Oggl, which will soon be available on all Lumia smartphones. The app enables sharing of photos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and Flickr, aside from their own Oggl network. Of course, services known form before, such as Nokia HERE suite of location and navigation services as well as the Music service are present on the new device.

While it is not the 41MP camera wonder device some have expected, the Lumia 925 is already considered the best of what Windows Phone platform has to offer. Excellent hardware is there, but software-wise Microsoft and Nokia both really need to push it this year in order to be competitive. Nokia did imply that there will be additional events this year, and we hope to see the PureView behemoth in its true glory as soon as possible.